102 St. C.'s care to remove all pretexts of dissension. EPIST. not ringing with the yells of maledictions and revilings, I XLV. ordered them to be read to the Clergy and people. But A. 251. whereas we wished for written communications from our Colleagues who were present at your ordination, we were not forgetful of the ancient practice, nor sought any thing new: for it were enough that you by letters announced that you were made Bishop, had there not been a dissentient faction on the opposite side, who by their slanderous and calumnious fictions disturbed the minds and perplexed the hearts of many, as well of our Colleagues as of our brethren. For composing which matter, we deemed it necessary to obtain thence in writing the sure and substantial authority of our Colleagues; who in their letters setting forth testimonials worthy of your conversation and life and discipline, have taken away even from your rivals and from such as delight either in novel or crooked ways, every pretence of doubt or dissent; and according to my advice the minds of the brethren, that were tossed on this sea, poised' by this sound method, have sincerely and stedfastly approved your priesthood. For this, brother, very especially we both do and ought to labour; that we strive to hold fast, as much as we can, the unity appointed by the Lord, and through the Apostles delivered to us their successors, and, as much as in us lies, that we gather into the Church the straying and wandering sheep, which the froward faction of some, and the temptation of heresy, separate from their mother; leaving those only to remain without, who persist in their obstinacy or madness, and will not return to us; who will hereafter have to give account to the Lord, of the division and separation they have caused, and of their abandonment of the Church. 3. But in regard to the cause of certain Presbyters here and Felicissimus, that you may know what has been done here, our Colleagues have sent to you letters subscribed by their own hands. What their opinion and what their sentence is, after hearing the parties, you will learn from their letters. But you will do better, brother, if you will also cause the copies of those letters to be read to the brethren with you, which, for our mutual affection, I sent very lately for your perusal f libratæ F. libratum Bal. which embarrasses the construction. St.C.'srespect and sorrow for Confessors involved in schism. 103 by our colleagues, Caldonius and Fortunatus; which I had written concerning the same Felicissimus and his Presbytery to my Clergy and people here, which also describe the order and method of the whole transaction; that as well here as there the brotherhood may be informed of all things by us. I have now sent again copies of the same by Mettius the Subdeacon, and Nicephorus the Acolythe. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell. EPISTLE XLVI. Cyprian to Maximus, and Nicostratus, and the other Since ye have frequently perceived from my Epistles, dearest, both what honour I have in my language shewn to your confession, and what love for the united brethren, I entreat you to believe and acquiesce in these present Epistles, in which I both write and consult with simplicity and faithfulness for you and your conduct and estimation. For it oppresses and saddens me, and the insupportable sorrow of a stricken and almost prostrate spirit weighs me down, on finding that you in those parts, contrary to ecclesiastical ordinance, contrary to the evangelical law, contrary to the unity of Catholic appointment, had agreed that another Bishop should be made; that is, what is neither right, nor may be done, that another Church should be constituted, the members of Christ torn asunder, the one mind and body of the Lord's flock rent by divided rivalry. Wherefore, I entreat that in you at least that unlawful division of our brotherhood may not continue, but that, mindful of your confession and the divine tradition, ye return to the mother whence ye have departed, whence ye came to the glory of confession, to the exulting joy of the same mother. Nor think that so ye maintain the Gospel of Christ, while ye separate yourselves from the flock of Christ and from His peace and concord; whereas it rather befits glorious and good soldiers to sit down within their own camp, and, stationed within, to do and to give heed to such things as are to be performed in common. For since our unanimity XLVIII. 104 Letter to Confessors in schism at Rome sent thro' the Bishop. EPIST. and concord ought not on any account to be broken, and A. 251. whereas we cannot leave the Church and go forth without and come to you, we beg and entreat, with every exhortation we can, that ye would rather return to the Church your mother, and to our brotherhood. I bid you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell. EPISTLE XLVII. Cyprian to Cornelius his brother, greeting. I have deemed it a point of conscience for myself and needful for you, dearest brother, to write a short Epistle to the Confessors who are with you, and who, seduced by the obstinacy and perverseness of Novatian and Novatus, have withdrawn from the Church; in which Epistle I would prevail with them, from mutual affection, to return to their mother, that is, the Catholic Church. This Epistle I have given order should be first read to you by Mettius the Subdeacon, lest any one should pretend that I have written any thing else than is contained in it. I have moreover charged the same Mettius, who is sent by me to you, to act in this matter according to your pleasure, and if you shall think that the same Epistle should be given to the Confessors, in that case to deliver it. I bid you, dearest brother, heartily farewell. EPISTLE XLVIII. Cyprian to Cornelius his brother, greeting. 1. I have read your letter, dearest brother, which you sent by Primitivus our brother-Presbyter, whereby I find that you were disturbed, that, whereas letters from the Adrumetine colony in the name of Polycarp were directed to you, after Liberalis and I had met in that same place, letters had been directed thence to the Presbyters and Deacons. This I wish you to know and be assured, was not done from any levity or intended affront. But when several of our order, who had met together, had determined, after sending our co-prelates Caldonius and Fortunatus ambassadors to you, that, in the mean time, all things Precautions to obtain unanimous recognition of Cornelius. 105 should remain as they were, until these same Colleagues should return to us, having either restored peace among you, or ascertained the exact truth, the Presbyters and Deacons in the Adrumetine colony, in the absence of our co-prelate Polycarp, were ignorant of what we had determined amongst ourselves. But when we came amongst them, they too, as others also, having become acquainted with our purpose, at once coincided with it, that so there might be no difference of proceeding in any of the Churches settled here. 2. Certain persons however sometimes disturb men's minds by their reports, representing some things otherwise than the truth is. For we, furnishing all who sail hence with a rule, lest in their voyage they any way offend, know well that we have exhorted them to acknowledge and hold to the root and womb of the Catholic Church. But as our province is of very wide extent, (for it has Numidia and Mauritania" annexed to it,) lest the fact of a schism in the City might perplex with uncertainties the minds of those absent, we determined, having by aid of those Bishops ascertained the exact truth and obtained better authority for approving your ordination, then at length, all scruples being removed from the breast of every one, to send Epistles to you from all, every where throughout the province, (as is being done,) that so all our Colleagues might approve of and hold to thee and thy communion, that is as well to the unity as the charity of the Catholic Church. All which, to our joy, has been brought about by God, and our design has through His Providence come to pass. For thus both the truth and the dignity of your Episcopate are alike established in the clearest and most manifest light, and by the most solid proof; so that from the answers of our Colleagues, who thence have written to us, and from the report and testimony of our co-prelates, Pompeius and Stephanus, Caldonius and Fortunatus, the requisite origin, and just method, and excellent purity, of your ordination may be known by all. That we with the i. e. the Church adhering to the lawful Bishop, which is the root on which individuals grow, the Mother of their second birth. The passage refers to Cornelius, as the lawful Bishop, not specially to the see of Rome. hor, the two Mauritania's, F. for it was now divided. XLIX. A. 251. 106 Care used to ensure sound restoration of the Confessors. EPIST. rest, our Colleagues, may stably and firmly administer our office, and uphold the peace of the Catholic Church in the unity of concord, the Divine favour will bring to pass: the Lord, Who vouchsafes to choose and appoint priests for Himself in His own Church, protecting them when chosen and appointed by His good will and succour, inspiring them in their government, and supplying both vigour for restraining the contumacy of the wicked, and lenity for encouraging the penitence of the lapsed. tian. I bid thee, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell. EPISTLE XLIX. Cornelius to Cyprian, his brother, greeting. 1. As we suffered great solicitude and anxiety for those Confessors who had been circumvented and almost led astray and estranged from the Church by the deceit and 1 Nova- malice of that crafty impostor', so were we filled with joy proportionate, and gave thanks to Almighty God and to Christ our Lord, when they, perceiving their error, and discovering the envenomed and, as it were, serpent craftiness of that malignant man, returned, as themselves profess, with singleness of purpose, to the Church whence they had departed. And, first of all, certain brethren of approved faith, lovers of peace, desirous of unity, reported the yet swelling pride of some, the softened temper of others, yet without sufficient evidence for us readily to believe that they were thoroughly changed. But afterwards Urbanus and Sidonius, Confessors, came to our fellow-Presbyters, declaring that Maximus the Confessor and Presbyter, equally with themselves, desired to return to the Church; but since there had preceded many things evil-intentioned by them, which you too have been made acquainted with by our co-Prelates and by my Epistles, so that confidence could not at once be placed in them, it seemed good that what they had sent by way of message, should be heard from their own mouths and confession. When they were come, and were charged by the Presbyters with what they had done, and that very lately many letters full of calumnies and revilings had been sent in their name through all the Churches, and had |